Deluca

Tre

January 8th, 1999

Francesco stood across from his best friend, who stood only two inches above him. They had spent their entire afternoon sparring with each other, trying to develop the skill of fighting just how their fathers knew. Enzo was tall and lanky, always tumbling over himself making him a slow fighter but he had the perfect amount of strength to knock Francesco off of his feet, two times.

"Again!" Enzo called out at Francesco who faulted in his last move. Francesco inhaled and tried again, trying to switch up his moves before Enzo could catch on.

His efforts went to waste when Enzo’s heavy hand slammed into Francesco's face. Francesco lashed out in blind fury, climbing up quickly to attack Enzo.

"Enough!" His father’s deep voice echoed in the mountains, causing birds to flee from nearby trees.

His father walked over to him, gripping his shoulders, "You'll never he anything if you can't control your emotions."

~*~

Present Day

Francesco tried to busy himself late into the night. He solely wasn't a drug king pin, he also ran numerous restaurants, bars, and clubs through the world. Managing being the CEO of them all made it extremely difficult, especially from Italy. But he knew that that wasn't the only reason why he was so hesitant to make any move towards the girl.

She seemed so small and frail, almost as if having a kitten for the first time and not wanting to hurt it. It was two in the morning before Francesco came from his office and made it way to find something to eat.

He stepped into the large kitchen, the same dark floors that ran throughout the house also lay in the kitchen. The cream counters and mixed rock marble table top, just how his mother hand-picked nearly forty years ago. Francesco walked over to the freezer, pulling out an ice cube and throwing it into a cup.

He grabbed his favorite brand of scotch and pour a splash into the cup before making his way over to the cabinet that held his beloved mason jar.

Francesco twisted open the top, pulling out a freshly rolled joint and lighting it. He found himself tempted to step outside, watch the hill side as he tried to convince his mind to calm down for resting.

Francesco took deep breaths in between pulls while he lounged on the mountain side. Not being able to see much, except for the small-town miles away. Once his eyes were too heavy to keep open, Francesco shuffled his way towards his room, turning off lights and activating the security system. By the time he made his way to the bedroom he was shocked to see Eleanor laying in the middle of the bed with each limb in a separate direction, sound asleep.

Francesco's eyes tried to focus on the darkness in his room, Eleanor being only lit by the moonlight from the curtains she had left open before falling asleep. The woman was beautiful, wild, but beautiful. It seemed as though she was too tired to tuck herself in, so Francesco grabbed cream throw and lay it gently over her body, careful not to wake her.

Shuffling back towards the guest room, he slept.

~*~

It was always rare for Francesco to sleep in, on his best days he could only sleep in until eight o clock at the latest. But this night was different, Francesco slept well into the morning, waking when the sun was nearly at its high point of the day. Climbing from the bed, the reality of yesterday's events began to settle into his mind.

This was the first morning in a long time he woke to a house that wasn't empty. He was used to waking up in the ghostly quiet house, feeling just has as empty as he. But even with the girl far away he could feel her presence in the house. Francesco opened the room door and hesitantly stepped out into the hallway as if she would be in the corner plotting and waiting on him.

It never occurred to him that he should be cautious of the girl, he had slept an entire night with a stranger room away and knew nothing of her. If she was willing enough she could've attempted to kill him in his sleep and he would wake far too late.

Francesco needed to use caution around her until he knew she could be trusted. If she ever could, she did in fact agreed to marry him for money, so she couldn't be all the virtuous that Giuseppe had warned.

Francesco made his way to his room to see that the girl was not there anymore, just his made bed that looked as though no one had ever slept in it. He walked to his bathroom and relived himself noticing the shower walls were wet, he knew that she had showered.

Where was she?

Francesco grabbed a shirt before making his way down to the kitchen where he expected to find her, but the kitchen was empty as well, but things being out of place he knew that she was here. He nearly turned to look in a different room before he saw the long tan legs of a woman on a lounging chair of the patio.

Francesco walked towards her and opened the door. Her skin that was pale yesterday held a rosy tinge that would soon be sunburned in minutes. Francesco let his shadow cover her sleeping eyes before waking her.

"Why are you laying out in this heat?" He asked. Francesco winced at how harsh he sounded when asking. Eleanor's eyes popped opened in shock and she jumped into a protective standing position.

He noticed that his tone and demeanor may not reflect the neutral energy he was trying to project to the girl, he instead focused him thoughts to attempt to make her feel more comfortable.

"There's a lake that wraps the garden, you can walk it if you'd like." Francesco said after a long pause.

The girl didn't give a response, so Francesco kept speaking, "The wedding is on the second of April. My mother and sister will be flying in to help you plan. I imagine you want to start planning before they arrive."

"Am I expected to plan this entire thing by myself?" Eleanor asked with a raised brow.

"No, I'll be around to help." Francesco responds before readying himself to go back inside and escape from the line of questioning that he didn't prepare himself for mentally. Before turning completely, he noticed the paleness of her skin and knew that the Italian sun was not relenting.

"Get out the sun, you'll burn."

Once back indoors Francesco carried out his usual morning routine of showering, shaving and getting dressed. He tried to keep away from the girl for the time being until he could figure out to do with her.

He felt bad due to the fact that most of his time was spent preoccupied by other things, being alone in this house would end up driving the girl mad. The sound of his cell phone chirping on the bathroom sink distracted Francesco's thinking.

Noticing the number, he answered to be greeted by Henri's quip demeanor.

"There's an issue on the strip." Henri said.

"I'll be there in twenty."

The strip was Francesco's landing ground for all of the family owned air craft carriers. It had taken the DeLuca's several years to gain access to a large piece of unguarded land. Something his father couldn't crack, but he managed.

Getting drugs and weaponry through air was the easier option than through sea, but many didn't attempt to do both. The militia worked hard to thwart anything Francesco attempted, so Francesco began to said militia to protect his property. Shipments hit land through water and are transported by helicopter to the strip where Francesco's team collected and disbursed.

Issues at the strip were always a first priority to Francesco because while the strip was not his only source of entry, it was his easiest and most cost-effective option.

Francesco left the house without even mentioning it to the girl. It was not lost on him that his boys never showed up to greet him this morning, they expected all of his spare time to be occupied on the girl, but for now she would have to entertain herself.

Francesco arrived at the strip within twenty minutes just as he said he would and got out of his car. The sight in front of him pissed him off, one of his plans were parked in the field with all of the boxes sitting next to it, surrounding it were cop cars and officers all speaking to the men who man the plane.

Francesco walked up, the sound of the engine on the plan loud, causing an uproar of wind to spin around the men, their ties flapping them in the face.

Francesco signaled for the men to cut the engine and the obeyed, "Officer is there an issue here?" Francesco said with his usual charismatic smile, hiding the fact that he just wanted to have all of the men killed immediately if it would make his day a little better, but it would not.

"You have your plane and the shipments sent to this field?" The man asked, he was someone new that he had never met before and it threw him off.

"Yes, problem?" Francesco asks, slightly more cautious.

"This is a permit stating that you cannot ship your goods onto this land anymore seeing as though it's not a designated landing space."

"You're air traffic control?" Francesco asked, accepting the paper that clearly stated exactly what the man had just said.

"No, I'm Marco Rossi, I've been sent here by the new deputy commissioner." He said while offering his hand out. Francesco ignored it.

"New?"

"You didn't hear? The last chief was fired due to corruption, I thought someone of your importance would know about this by now." The man, Marco said.

Francesco opted out of response rather than revealing his ignorance, he was pissed that he didn't know and was being played as the food when he had previously trained to be one step ahead, always.

"You don't have long left, Mr. DeLuca." Marco threatened, "This stop is just the first of many."

"I'm sure we can work out some sort of deal." Francesco said, every man had his amount.

The man chuckles, "It's kind of you to offer Mr. DeLuca, but we no longer work for you."

Francesco gave a soft scoff, his words nearly unbelievable, "That's a shame. I'm sure you have a family that you work hard for. I wouldn't want to see you compromise that."

Marco gave a scoff back to Francesco, the threat going directly over his head. "The only reason we aren't opening the containers is because we know this isn't even a blimp on your radar. We will be back Mr. DeLuca, but until then, no deliveries." Marco waves his hand signaling his men to fall back as they began to walk away, following in their proper order. Once they were in their cars Francesco turned to Henri who was standing near the loading bay with his arms crossed over his chest looking more amused than bothered by what had just happened.

"I assume meeting your wife was nice, you didn't kill the man." Henri commented.

"Find out who he is, find out who his family is, if he moves I want to know about it. I will not let that stop a single movement in my plans." Francesco demanded.

"Do you want us to move this? Eyes are still on us." Henri stared, Francesco knew that all of his movements were being watched and more than likely they have been getting watched for a while now already. Due to the fact that he confronted him to face, they knew something.

"Be discreet." Francesco said before turning away and making his way back to his car. He was fuming, and his mind was racing with thousands of scenarios on how to fix this issue, but his brain was coming up with dead ends without any more information and that was something he didn't have right now.

Patience was his biggest enemy, but for now he wanted to distract himself with something better to occupy his mind. His first idea was the girl, she was something he had to learn a lot about.

There was no file on her and if there was he had no access to it, he had to actually get to know her and he couldn't learn a single thing about her being miles away.

Francesco made his way back to his house, preparing to find a way to speak and relate to the girl to extract as much as he can from her in a single seating. But upon entering he saw her making her way to his private room, the man’s blood still stained the floor, the aroma of iron probably still filled the room.

"I wouldn't open that if I were you."